July 4th Indoor BBQ w/ McCormick’s Grill Mates

On July 4th, we had an indoor BBQ. This was to satisfy my husband’s craving for charred meat. His yen for flames shooting high into the air would have to go unsatisfied, as we were using an electric tabletop hotplate grill that we bought when we had been living in Japan. Surprisingly it still works, despite having been dragged from Japan to Oregon, to Florida, to New Jersey.

Japanese electronics are truly a wonder!

I had also been contacted by Crowdtap for an opportunity to try out some of McCormick’s Grill Mates line of seasonings and sauces. This seemed to be the perfect time to put those to use.

Knowing that our girls are chaos personified wrapped around Murphy’s Law whenever dangerous things like electric grills are in use, we wisely decided to wait until after they had gone to bed.

I uncrated the box of various McCormick’s seasonings and sauces that Crowdtap and McCormick’s had sent me and got to work earlier that day:

The lamb sausage (just ground lamb mixed w/Molasses Bacon seasoning) was pretty tasty! Wasn’t dry or overly salty or spicy. This seasoning went very well with this meat and the plain yogurt added the right amount of moisture and was complemented with the strip of roasted red pepper.

The pork butt was thinly sliced and the Memphis Pit Rub applied to top and bottom of the slab. It was moist throughout, the rub stayed on quite well and after 6 hours in the fridge with the rub on, the flavor had permeated through quite a few layers. It was delicious – a bit smoky, not too spicy but with a bold rich taste.

The fish…well, I think that the Spiced Brandy & Herb Marinade’s directions to include a couple tablespoons of vinegar might have been fine for meat or fowl, but with the fish, it kind of ‘cooked’ it like a ceviche, so when we cooked it for real – it ended up tasting like it was overcooked. The marinade tasted nice otherwise, but the haddock itself was a write-off. I’d be willing to try this again on some chicken drumsticks, though.

The sirloin was ok. We got it cooked to medium rare, the Brown Sugar Bourbon BBQ Sauce was nice as a marinade, the flavor permeated quite well, but didn’t do much for tenderizing.

and finally…The SWEET POTATO FRIES!!!!! O.M.G!!! The cookbook with recipes that Crowdtap and McCormick sent me had a recipe for making homemade sweet potato fries, but being a very tired mama, I decided to skip some steps and just bought a bag or storebrand cheapo unseasoned fries.

Then I drizzled some of the Brown Sugar Bourbon BBQ Sauce over it, tossed a little and dumped them on the grill. When they got brown, I flipped them over to finish browning on the other side, until they were done.

These were the single most best thing we ate the entire evening!!! While the BBQ sauce for the meat was pleasant, it elevated the sweet potato fries to NIRVANA!!! I think I could happily live off of these for quite awhile!!! Really!

**To conduct this review, Crowdtap & McCormick sent me the above products (and a bottle of Montreal Steak seasoning), an apron, as seen above. No other consideration or payment was received. The opinions expressed above are my own and not influenced in any way by the sponsors. After submitting this review I may receive points that I can redeem for a gift card.

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2 thoughts on “July 4th Indoor BBQ w/ McCormick’s Grill Mates”

Wow, lamb sausages? I’ve never heard of them, but adore lamb. Now I have something new I must hunt down!

We love McCormick’s. Their Montreal Steak Seasoning makes homemade steaks taste better than any we can buy in a restaurant.Katie B. of HousewifeHowTos.com recently posted..Save Money With Natural Mosquito Control

Hi Katie!
The lamb sausages are just ground lamb mixed with the McCormick’s Molasses Bacon seasoning blend, formed into sausage shapes and pan roasted with a little olive oil. Easy Peasy!

I love the Montreal Steak Seasoning too! But since we’d already been using that all along, we just did the grilling with the ones we’d never tried (or heard of) before. I like the title of your post mentioned above, so I’ll be over to your blog shortly to read about it! Thanks for commenting!Lara recently posted..July 4th Indoor BBQ w/ McCormick’s Grill Mates